This invention relates to a power transmission mechanism in an automotive vehicles, etc., and, more particularly, it is concerned with a shifting mechanism in a five-stage or three-stage power transmission mechanism.
In this kind of power transmission mechanism, there has already been known a construction such that a reverse gear is interposed between the first speed gear and the second speed gear, and the driving force is transmitted from a main reverse gear to a counter reverse gear through a reverse idle gear.
In the above known construction of the power transmission mechanism, there has been proposed a modified construction such that the shifting of the reverse idle gear and the fifth or third speed gear is carried out by reciprocating movement of a single common shift fork shaft, or simultaneously moving two shift fork shafts. In this mechanism, however, the reverse idle gear should be moved unnecessarily in the direction opposite to the reverse shifting direction at the time of shifting to the fifth or third speed gear, and a space to permit the movement is required to be provided between the first and the second speed gears, on account of which the total length of the power transmission mechanism increases in its axial direction. Such prolonged shaft length has been a great and serious obstacle in a vehicle, on which the power transmission mechanism is mounted in the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle body.